Benin

New Approaches for Climate and Biodiversity Action

Project completed

Organisation

Fonds National pour l’Environnement et le Climat (FNEC)

Website

Support area

Adaptation to climate change
Conservation of biodiversity
Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions

Funding

670000 €

Project duration

Dec, 2021 – Nov, 2024

Objective: Promote and finance small-scale climate (mitigation, adaptation) and/or biodiversity projects

With support from Germany’s International Climate Initiative, Benin’s National Fund for Environment and Climate (FNEC) established an initiative to finance climate and biodiversity action projects led by national civil society organisations. Through a call for proposals, FNEC identified five NGOs that each received up to 90,000 euros in funding and technical support. These local organisations implemented projects aimed at adapting agricultural practices to climate change and protecting biodiversity. Actions focused on restoring woodlands and pastures, empowering communities, and transforming livelihoods through sustainable sources of income such as fish farming and beekeeping. As a result, around 3,000 people directly benefited from the NGOs’ activities across the country, almost 3,000 hectares of land were restored, and about 20,000 tons of CO2 emissions were saved. FNEC also gained valuable experience and strengthened its capacity to implement funding programmes. For institutions like FNEC in Benin, cooperation with IKI Small Grants serves as a stepping stone to receiving funds from larger programmes. By early 2025, FNEC had secured $16 million from UN funding lines to counter the effects of climate change.

A young woman from Benin with a headscarf is standing in front of a concrete fish pond and holding a fish in her hands looking into the camera.

Local villagers in Benin stand in front of a concrete fish pond, inspecting the water and fish with a net.

Women from an agricultural cooperative in Benin, dressed in colorful dresses and headscarves, stand in front of an agricultural shredding machine.

Eight women in Benin are standing in colorful traditional dresses and headscarfs in front of two agricultural shredding machines.

Six beekeepers wearing protective suits and equipped with beekeeping equipment inspect a hive in a local forest in Benin.

A local villager in Benin stands in a green field, inspecting the crops.

Three workers are standing in a field, filling a soy harvesting machine with soy plants.

An aerial picture shows a community fodder and watering site for livestock, featuring a solar panel and two water tank towers, set in a green landscape in Benin.

Members of a local community in Benin are visiting a field with green vegetation to receive training in sustainable land management.

Around 20 local community members in traditional colorful dresses stand in a circle in a village in Benin, receiving training on using compost to promote market gardening production.

An aerial picture shows a forest in Benin with a variety of trees which is surrounded by plane lands.

Capacity development

IKI Small Grants supported FNEC in developing and strengthening its capacities as a financing institution in the context of climate and biodiversity protection, including:

- Strengthening FNEC’s capacities regarding the requirements of the international climate and biodiversity funds in terms of project development for the mobilisation of financing.
- Strengthening capacities of FNEC’s Committee of Experts for Environmental, Social and Gender Monitoring (CESESAG) on GCF’s environmental and social standards.
- Carrying out an organizational audit of FNEC, together with an action plan to remedy the gaps identified.
- Upgrading platforms and databases for the submission and management of projects.
- Training FNEC’s executives in monitoring-evaluation mechanisms for climate change adaptation and mitigation projects.
- Supporting the organisation through exchange visits with other organisations already accredited to the GCF and the AF for knowledge sharing on projects already implemented.

Dr. Appolinaire Gnanvi is the Director General of the Fonds National pour l’Environnement et le Climat, a Beninese funding organisation that successfully increased its funding budget through international cooperation. © FNEC

International Climate Initiative: How fish save sacred forests | Internationale Klimaschutzinitiative (IKI)

Project videos

About the organisation

The National Fund for Environment and Climate (Fonds National pour l’Environnement et le Climat, FNEC) is a financial instrument under the supervision of the Ministry of Living Environment and Sustainable Development in Benin. The organisation was founded in 2003 and responds to a need to support and finance initiatives related to environmental protection and climate change. The financing mechanism for programs and projects aims at the protection and rational management of the environment, the fight against the harmful effects of climate change and the promotion of a sustainable development in Benin.

Selected projects

Community feeding and watering site for livestock in the commune of Djidja

Support area: Adapting to the impacts of climate change

Overexploitation of pasture and water resources by transhumant herders lead to degradation of natural resources and conflicts of use with farmers in the project region. The project strengthens sustainable pasture management, fodder production by arable farmers, establishment of hedges and provision of drinking troughs and fodder plots for model farmers.

Organisation: Equilibre d’Afrique

Restoration and sustainable conservation of the Kpékonzoun sacred forest in the commune of Adjohoun

Support area: Conserving biological diversity

The Kpékonzoun sacred forest is one of the last forest reserves in the commune of Adjohoun. It is threatened by trade of wood and uncontrolled hunting. The project contributes to the sustainable management of the forest through the sustainable valorization of its biological resources and strengthening the resilience of local communities.

Organisation: Organisation pour le Développement Durable et la Biodiversité (ODDB)

Preservation of the Perma River Headwaters in Kamborifa

Support area: Adapting to the impacts of climate change

The headwaters of the Perma River are degrading due to increasing pressure of use. The project promotes the sustainable management of water resources through infrastructure (boreholes, drinking troughs for animals, collective laundry areas with water collection pits), the spread of market gardening production and the restoration of vegetation (gallery forests and river banks) with native species.

Organisation: Benin Culture Développement Amitié (BCDA)

Preservation and valorization of the ecosystems of the Bourandou community forest and the Sinatabe sacred forest

Support area: Conserving natural carbon sinks / forestry

The degradation of forest areas is counteracted by restoring vegetation and establishing sustainable land use methods. In the surrounding area, local communities are trained in sustainable land management and alternative income opportunities are created (bee-keeping, sustainable fisheries, small animals).

Organisation: Association Féminine pour une Jeunesse Epanouie (AFEJE)

Strengthening the resilience of food security in response to climate change in the Commune of Houéyogbé

Support area: Adapting to the impacts of climate change

Due to changes in precipitation, droughts and floods are occurring more frequently in the community of Houéyogbé. In order to increase the resilience of the population to these climate fluctuations, adapted agricultural practices are being promoted. In addition, the processing of agricultural products and market access are strengthened through agricultural business clusters.

Organisation: Organisation pour le Développement des Initiatives à la Base (ODIB)